Kingdom Hearts: A Shot at Life
by Waterblaster251
Summary: Anie was living a normal life, having fun with her friends and sometimes with her annoying little siblings. But one day, she runs into heartless, and now she's stuck in some weird group called Organization 13. Will she ever return to her normal life?
1. Prologue

_Faster._ I need to go faster! Come on, I can't let him beat me now!

"Looks like I'm going to beat you today!" a smug voice announced behind me.

"No way! I'm totally going way faster than you are Hayner!" I replied and sped up. There was no way I was going to buy ice cream for him again. No way!

"Guys! Wait... Up...!" a boy with a red jersey and black headband panted, "Slow down!"

"If we do that, we'll lose!" Hayner told him.

We were nearing the ice cream shop now... Just a little further...

"I win!" Both me and Hayner shouted simultaneously, "No, I win!"

"Come on Hayner, we both know I was at least an inch ahead of you."

"Yeah right!"

"Is Pence still running?" a brown haired girl with an orange flowered tank top and khaki capris asked.

"Oh, hey Olette, you got here fast!"

"I was right behind you the whole time, if you looked!" she giggled.

"Hey... Guys... I finally... Made it!" Pence panted. He looked at all of us and sighed, "Aww, looks like I have to buy them again!"

"No, I'll get them this time," I walked towards the counter and saw my mother placing a few brown boxes by the store's wall, "Hey mom, can I get 4 specials for my friends please?"

She saw me and smiled, "Oh, sure honey, just give me a second!" She opened a door behind her and disappeared, soon to return with four sea salt ice cream bars in her hands, "Be safe, okay?"

"Okay mom, see you later! Thanks for the ice cream!" I took the bars and gave Hayner, Pence, and Olette each one. Pence immediately, held the bar up to his mouth to take a bite out of it and Hayner grabbed his arm.

"What's the big deal Hayner?"

"You can't eat that now! We're not on the tower yet!"

"What? What do you mean! Why would we go up there to eat?"

"It's a nice idea, isn't it? Watching the sunset... And eating ice cream together!" Olette gazed at her bar dreamily, "Great idea Hayner!"

"Yeah, okay, now let's go already! The ice cream's melting!" I started running to the tower, before shouting behind my back, "Race you there Hayner!"

"Hold this for me will ya Pence," Hayner shoved his bar into Pence's hands and ran after me, "You'll need that head start to beat me!"

"Uh... I'll see you there Hayner!" Pence called after him.

~Time Skip~

"Finally here!" I shouted as I sat down on the edge.

"I let you get ahead of me on the stairs up here, that's all."

"Sure you did, anyway, let's eat them before it's all gone!" I bit into my ice cream, the sweet and salty flavors mixed together perfectly.

"Jeez, you sure know how to wait for your friends Anie!" Olette said, suddenly appearing behind me. I turned around and saw Olette holding her ice cream while Pence was giving Hayner his back.

"Oh... Sorry!" Pence and Olette sat down next to Hayner and I and started eating their bars.

"Wow, the sunset's really beautiful, don't you think?" All of us nodded in agreement, gazing at the sun disappearing in the distance.

~Time Skip~

"I'm back~!" I shouted as I flung open the front door of my home.

"Finally! You can play hide and seek with us!" Ricky, my little brother, shouted in happiness.

"What? But I just got back!" I groaned, did he really have to play now?

"You said that you would play with us when you got back today," he pouted, pushing his lower lip out, "Right Lily?"

My little sister, Ricky's twin, lifted the hood of her oversized Shadow sweater up so she could see us, "Um... yes."

"Alright, you win! Go and hide, I'm counting to 10!" I closed my eyes and started to count, "1...2...3-."

"Wait! We're gonna hide outside!" Ricky announced, putting the hood of _his_ Shadow sweater over his head, "It'll be easier to hide out there!"

"It's dark, and late, it's too dangerous!" I argued.

"Mom said it would be okay if you were with us, so it's not dangerous!" he started pouting again.

"He's right, keep an eye on them. There shouldn't be any danger, as long as I can see you guys out the window," Mom confirmed.

"Alright, let's go," I sighed and opened the front door, letting Ricky and Lily rush past me. I closed my eye's once again, "1...2...3...4..."

I heard some giggling and whispering, they were probably planning, "5...6...7...8...9...10! Ready or not, here I come!"

I opened my eyes to see... No one in front of me, just a brick wall. I listened carefully, I could hear some shuffling to my left, so I walked in that direction.

I saw a shadow that looked Ricky with his hood down, and ran towards it. Immediately, the shadow started to run away.

I looked behind me and noticed we were going too far from the house, "Hey, come back here! Mom said to stay in front of the house!"

He kept on running, ignoring my words. I sighed and increased my speed.

Eventually, I trapped him in a corner, and stopped running, "Hey, Ricky, let's go back, I found you."

Then he turned around, and I got a better look at him. Or should I say... it. It had glowing yellow eyes, and sharp looking black claws.

My face paled, "Oh no... It's a heartless...!" It disappeared, and I sighed in relief. But that relief was short lived, as I was suddenly surrounded by Shadows my height. I stepped back nervously, and saw a girl with black hair run towards me, shouting something. She was holding... A big key? What was that going to do? The monsters got closer to me, and the last thing I saw was... Darkness.

* * *

><p>Okay, so the tall Shadows (for those of you who either don't know Kingdom Hearts or are just starting it) are Neoshadows.<p>

I'm sure many of you who played a certain Kingdom Hearts game know who the girl with black hair is!


	2. Chapter 1

"Pitiful Heartless, mindlessly collecting hearts. The rage of the Keyblade releases those hearts. They gather in darkness, masterless and free... until they weave together to make Kingdom Hearts. And when that time comes, we can truly, finally exist."

Number XV, Xenia. That's what they call me now. But, that isn't my name... Is it? I don't remember... Who was I?

_"What are you doing? Get out of here now!" the girl shouted at me, swinging her oversized key at the shadows. A few of them disappeared, but they just kept coming back. Me? I was frozen, like a statue. I had no idea what was going on, and if I could, I would have ran away as fast as I could. But I couldn't move. Maybe it was from shock, or fear. Or maybe I wanted to help. Either way, I wasn't going anywhere, I was doomed because of that._

_A shadow advanced on me, and my legs seemed to remember what they were for, and I stumbled backwards. I fell, and it was all over. The shadow attacked me, and... I guess I died. But... That doesn't sound right. Did I really go out that easily?_

I was standing in the middle of a circular platform, with cloaked figures sitting on chairs surrounding me. I looked up to see amber eyes glaring down at me. He was an intimidating figure, with long silver hair and dark skin. I opened my mouth to say something, but no words came out.

"Welcome, Number XV."

I lowered my head, I've seen him earlier I think. That's right! He's that cloaked figure that told me my name.

_A...N...I...E. Those were the letters in front of me. They spun around me before stopping in front of me. But now, there was a large X in between the letters._

_"Xenia, that is your new name," the cloaked figure announced before disappearing. A girl with short black hair nervously walked in front of me. Somehow, she seemed familiar._

_"Hi, I'm Xion. It's nice to meet you..," she introduced herself._

_"Xenia," I told her, "The name's Xenia."_

_She seemed sad for some reason, "Hey, what's wrong?"_

_"Oh, it's nothing, really!" She shook her head, "Come on, we need to go to a welcoming meeting."_

_She summoned a dark portal and walked towards it. I just stared, "Aren't you coming?"_

_I quickly nodded and followed her._

After the meeting, Xion took me to a large room with a huge window at the end of it. When I looked through it, I could see a heart shaped moon, "Is the moon supposed to be shaped like that?"

"That, is Kingdom Hearts, we collect hearts to complete it. You will help collect those hearts today," A man with long blue hair and yellow eyes. He had an X across his face, and it didn't look pretty.

"How?" I asked.

"You will be going to Neverland today, Xion will show you the basics," he glared at Xion, "Don't fail this time _puppet_."

She winced and looked down nervously.

"Who are you?" I asked him another question. He obviously didn't like my questions.

"Number VII." I opened my mouth to protest, that's a number not a name!

"That's Saix, Number VII of Organization XIII. Or maybe it's Organization XV now, since there's a few more members!"Xion explained.

She then summoned a portal and walked through it, leaving me behind. I quickly ran after her before it disappeared. I was suddenly on a cliff, with the sea and beach behind me. Xion was in front of me, waiting.

"You need me to show you the ropes, right? Well.. I guess we could start with summoning your weapon," she said quietly.

"Wait... What? Summoning a _weapon_?" I asked her for confirmation. Since when could people summon weapons?

"Yeah, like this," she held her hand out and a huge metal key appeared in her hands, "You try it!"

I held out my hands and thought of having a weapon. What would it be though? I like fighting, but I don't really do well when we're punching and kicking each other. I usually attack from a distance, like when we have paint ball wars. I see a flash of white and suddenly, there's a compound bow in my hands. I feel weight on my back and realize that it's a bag of arrows.

"Wow... It's... Amazing!" Xion stared at my bow. I looked at it, I guess it was pretty cool. It was silver with a red handle that had weird markings on it. They sort of looked like magic runes, "Try to attack with it!"

"Um... Attack what?" I looked around, looking for a target. Suddenly, a heartless that looked like this soldier with wings appeared.

"Attack that, it's an Air Battler!" She pointed to it, but there was no need. It was kind of obvious flying around us.

I held my bow out in front of me and grabbed an arrow from my bag. It had the same design as my bow. I aimed my arrow for it's head, so it would land in it's chest. I shot, and hit it square on the chest. It flew backwards and then got back up, enraged.

"Great! Now try using a spell, like Thunder!"

"A... spell? Like a witch?"

"Just think of it, and you'll be able to do it. You should know a spell or two."

I thought of what birds hate, and thought of how they always hide during storms. Lightning and Thunder... I took out another arrow and aimed again. This one was crackling with electricity. I hit the monster again, and it exploded in a purple light, then disappeared.

"You did it! Now, um, let's go defeat some more," Xion cheered, and ran off.

"Wait, there's more of them here?!" I shouted, running after her, after hanging my bow on my bag.

~Time Skip~

"22 heartless. We defeated 22 heartless," I muttered, exhausted.

"If you think that's an amazing feat, you'd better think again, there's way more than that to kill during missions." A man with black side burns and dreadlocks told me as he passed by.

I groaned and laid my head down on the table I was sitting at. There was no way I would survive through tomorrow.

"Hey, Xenia! Um, since we completed the mission today, and.. you did great... So I'd like to introduce you to some of my friends," Xion said quietly.

"Sure! Where are they?" I looked around but only saw Saix scowling at us.

"They're in Twilight Town, come on, I'll show you," she summoned another one of those portals and motioned for me to come with her.

We arrived in a familiar town. I mean, it looked familiar. The buildings, the streets... Even the signs.

"I've been here before..," I say quietly. Xion looked at me in confusion.

"What did you say?"

I shook my head, "Nothing, let's go."

She led me to a huge clock tower, I could see two figures sitting on top of it.

"Great! They're already here! Let's go!" She ran inside the building and up the steps to the top. I, of course, raced after her.

At the top, a boy with spiky blond hair and a man with porcupine-like red hair were waiting.

"Looks like you finally arrived Xion! Is that the new member I spy behind you?" the red head spoke. He had bright green eyes, and some sort of tattoos under each.

"This is Xenia, she went with me to Neverland today!" Xion told them and she sat down next to the blond haired boy.

"Well, nice to meet you Xenia, the name's Axel," he tapped his head, "Got it memorized?"

"Um... I guess so."

"This zombie over here eating ice cream is Roxas," Axel shoved the blond haired boy, grinning.

"Hey! Nice to meet you!" Roxas looked at me smiling, allowing me to see that he had blue eyes.

"Here, take one, it's lucky I happen to have an extra one today," Axel handed me a blue and white ice cream bar as I sat down next to him, "This is-."

"Sea salt ice cream! I love this stuff!" I took the bar and bit into smiling, then stopped confused. How did I know that?

"How did you know...?" Axel started to ask, but stopped.

"I dunno. It just popped in my head."

"The sunset's nice today isn't it?" Xion said. We all agreed. Finally, I've got some friends in the Organization. It was easier than I thought it would be, everyone seemed so intimidating.

Somehow, this felt familiar. But why?


	3. Chapter 2

_I couldn't breathe. I was drowning in the ocean. Would someone come and save me?_

_"Mom!"My cries reached no ears as I sunk deeper into the ocean. Fear shot through me, and I flailed my arms to try to reach the surface._

_I got tired quickly, and I closed my eyes, accepting my fate._

I opened my eyes to see a white and black creature in my face. It was super skinny and seemed to be laughing as it stood over me.

"Gah!" I swung my arm at it, but it easily dodged my attack and teleported away. I realized there was a clothespin covering my nose and removed it.

"I guess I'll go see if Saix has anything for me to do today," I stretched my arms and strolled out of my white room.

"You're late!" Saix shouted angrily, glaring at me.

"There's a certain time I'm supposed to be here?" I was confused, since when did I have to get a mission at a certain time?

"There are tasks that need to be done each and everyday. You are supposed to get up and do these tasks, not come to me in the middle of the afternoon asking me what you're supposed to do," he snapped. He looked at someone sitting on the couch relaxing, "I was going to have Xion go with you today, but it seems that Xigbar will have to do it."

"Wait, I have to work with the twerp? I already did my job today," a man with a long dark hair and pointy ears complained.

"I have no time for complaints Xigbar, just do it. As for where to go, Neverland still has heartless that need to be eliminated."

"Tch, fine," he look at me, "Hurry up and let's go."

He opened another portal, similar to how Xion did yesterday, and walked through it. I followed him back into Neverland.

"Alright, what's your weapon?" Xigbar turned around to face me. I noticed he wore and eye-patch and had a long scar going across his face. I summoned my bow and arrows that I had yesterday. He examined them, "Bow and arrows huh? That'll make this job easier. Since we both have ranged weapons, we can pick them off from a distance."

"Ok, but... Where are the heartless?" I looked around and only saw plants and the ocean.

"You can't just appear somewhere and expect them to pop up, idiot. You've got to look around for them," Xigbar jumped down a ledge and walked near a hole with a box in it. Immediately, a couple of floating heartless appeared. They were blue and light blue, and had glowing yellow eyes. He jumped back and summoned these awesome long guns that were purple. The Heartless each recieved a purple beam and disappeared.

"See what I mean? You go look for heartless too, I can't be doing all the work." I nodded and lead the way, seeing him following me. I walked all the way to the edge of the cliff, and found a deep hole with a huge box. There was a dark aura surrounding it.

"Uhh, Xigbar, what's wrong with this box?" I asked, looking back at him.

"That's.. Get back!" He jumped farther away quickly. I saw why as a huge blue tail hit my face, knocking me backwards, "A Wavecrest."

I immediately pulled an arrow from my bag and thought of the spell I used yesterday. Electricity started shooting off of it and I aimed it at the Wavecrest. I shot it, and it barely hit, since it was moving quickly.

"You already know spells huh? Guess I won't have to tell you about them then." Xigbar started shooting it's head, following it around the cliff. I did my best to help too, but I didn't help much, as most of my attacks missed.

The Wavecrest roared and inhaled deeply before shooting a large amount of water at Xigbar. He flew backwards and landed roughly on the ground.

"Hey, a Cure or something would be really helpful right now!" Xigbar called to me. Cure? He wants me to heal him, right? Then... Maybe I should use the same technique as yesterday.

I grabbed an arrow from my back, and thought of healing him. My arrow turned green, and it's end was replaced with a flower and some leaves. I aimed at Xigbar, who didn't seem pleased with my decision.

"What are you doing? I asked you to use Cure, not to shoot me!"

I steadied my aim, and released the arrow. Unfortunately, the Wavecrest decided that this would be the perfect time to finish him off. It inhaled deeply and my arrow sailed closer. Right as the Wavecrest released it's attack, the arrow reached Xigbar and disappeared. Then he was blasted with another attack.

"What the heck was that for?!" Xigbar shouted at me. He shot at the Wavecrest, and seemingly killed it as it disappeared, and glared at me. My bow and arrows disappeared in a flash.

"What do you mean? I healed you."

"You attacked me with your arrow!" he turned around and summoned a portal, "Mission's over, I've defeated enough heartless for one day."

The portal disappeared. He left me behind.

Maybe I could try summoning one myself. I held my hand out, like Xigbar and Xion did before, and thought of returning to the castle. A black portal slowly formed. I stepped through it and suddenly appeared back inside the area I left. But Xigbar was nowhere in sight.

A guy with red spiky hair walked towards me. I remember, his name was Axel!

"The superior want to see you in the 'meeting room'," he announced.

"What for?" I asked, confused. Then it hit me. Xigbar must've complained to the leader. Oh no...

"I dunno, just be careful," he walked away, scratching his head.

I took a deep breath and walked towards the same room I arrived in the white room. I looked up and saw Xemnas sitting in his chair with Xigbar sitting to the side, still glaring.

"Xenia, Xigbar tells me you attacked him. Explain yourself." I looked down. Man, he's intimidating!

"I didn't attack him, I cured him using my bow and arrow," I said in a small voice.

"Show me what you did," he commanded.

"What?" I looked up at him.

"Show me what you did to Xigbar," he repeated, leaning forward.

"Wait, you mean attack me? No way!" Xigbar protested.

"You're saying she should attack me instead?" Xemnas had a dangerous look in his eyes.

"No...," Xigbar looked away.

I summoned my bow and arrows again, and slowly took out an arrow. My hands were shaking for some reason. I thought of curing again. It turned the same way as before, and I aimed it at Xigbar.

"Wait, you seriously can't be going through with this!"

I released my arrow, and it hit Xigbar square in the chest before disappearing in a soft green light.

"That didn't do any damage whatsoever, did it Xigbar?" Xemnas asked him.

"No... I guess it did actually heal me a little," he looked furious.

"Then there is no need for punishment. Xenia, you may go now."

I nodded and quickly teleported OUT of there and ran into Axel.

"How did it go, what did he want?" he asked me.

"He wanted to see why I shot Xigbar." Axel, needless to say, was shocked.

"You did WHAT?! Are you insane?" He yelled.

"I was using Cure on him, okay? It worked, but the heartless we were fighting attacked right after so he didn't notice it..."

"You're crazy, you know that?"

"I sure am!"

"Well, I'll see you later, I'm going to catch some Z's," he waved as he walked to his room.

I decided to do the same and returned to my room collapsing on my bed.

Hopefully, I wouldn't ever be paired with Xigbar again.

_  
>So how was it guys? I really wanted to use Saix, but then I remembered his Beserk state... I wonder how that would turn out for Xenia...<p>

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts but I do own Xenia


	4. Chapter 3

_I opened my eyes after feeling the water stir a little, and saw... A hand? It reached for me and I tried to grab it. My hand missed it, and I sunk lower. The hand retreated. NO! Soon a boy dove into the water and reached out to me. He had silver hair, blue-green eyes and pale skin. I tried to grab his hand, and missed again. I was getting tired. I closed my eyes slowly, my last sight being the boy trying to grab me._

Beep! Beep! Beep!

"Ugh, what is that noise?" I groaned and sat up, stretching my arms out. I looked around for the source of the problem, and saw a clock sitting on the white desk next to my bed. I slammed the snooze button and laid down again before shooting back up.

"Right! I got that so I wouldn't be late again!" I ran out of the room and nearly slammed into Saix. He glared down at me and I backed away quickly, "Um, what's my mission today?"

"Go to Neverland and defeat defeat Heartless. There are too many there," he walked away after giving me one final glare.

When I arrived in Neverland, there weren't any Heartless in sight.

"Right, I have to look around for them..." I ran around the island I was on, looking in the boxes left on the ground. Nothing.

"What's up with this? I don't see any Heartless!" I walked to the edge of the cliff I was on. The same place the Wavecrest appeared. But this time, the first heartless I defeated appeared: an Air Soldier. I quickly summoned my bow and arrow and aimed at it. But before I could shoot, it swooped towards me and I was knocked backwards. I fell of the edge of the cliff.

I was falling fast, too fast. At this rate, my impact with the water could kill me. I tried grabbing at the wall of the cliff , but nothing was there. I took one of my arrows and pushed it into the wall as hard as I could. It got stuck in there, but when I stopped falling, my weight was a bit too much for it.

I slammed into the water without time to take a breath, and water filled my nose. I panicked. Flailing my arms, I tried to reach the surface of the water, but with no luck. I was sinking, and fast! Was I really going to drown this time? I tried reaching the surface one more time, and a boy dove into the water when I did. He looked like... Roxas? He grabbed my hand and pulled me to the surface.

_"Hey, are you okay?" the boy asked me. _

_I coughed and gasped for air, "What?" _

_"How did you get in the water?" he asked me a different question. _

_"I... Fell..." I said quietly._

_He stood up, and held out his hand, "Well, you're okay now. My name's Riku, what's yours?" I took his hand and stood up. _

_"Anie, nice to meet you... Riku."_

_My mother ran towards us, "Are you okay Anie? I saw you fall, and..." She looked at Riku, "Who's this?"_

_"This is Riku, he saved me when I was drowning!" I explained. Yeah, I never took swimming lessons, because you don't really need to know how to swim in Twilight Town._

_"Thank you, Riku. I appreciate it," my mother told him._

"No problem ma'am," Riku smiled.

"Rikuuu! Let's practice fighting again!" A boy with spiky brown hair and blue eyes ran towards Riku.

"I've got to go. Nice meeting you," Riku waved and ran towards the spiky haired boy.

_"Riku... Huh."_

_My mother grabbed my hand, "You're freezing! Let's go back home, you need to warm up before you catch a cold!"_

What happened next... What happened next was so weird I'm not even sure if I'm dreaming or not anymore. He started FLYING. He rose above the water, and pulled me with him. So I was just hanging there while he was flying.

"Hey! Could you help my friend out fairy?" he called out to the air. I looked around, what fairy? I sure didn't see any.

Suddenly, a bright light appeared and flew around me. I started to sparkle, which I really didn't like.

"What's going on Roxas?" I looked at him for an explanation.

"Just picture yourself flying. If you believe you can, you can fly!"

I sighed, this was ridiculous. I closed my eyes and thought of birds. Those were the only creatures that can fly, after all. No, he said I have to think I can fly too, right? Okay... Humans can fly. Humans can FLY. Humans are the only creatures that can fly!

I felt my arm get lighter. I looked down and saw myself rising above the water. Of course, I reacted how any NORMAL PERSON who is logical would react. I freaked out.

"I'm flying! How is this happening, what is going on Roxas?" I screamed at him.

"Relax! This fairy makes people fly with some sort of glowing dust," he told me calmly.

"What are you doing here though Roxas?" I asked him. Saix assigned me to get rid of heartless here, so he didn't need to be here.

"Oh, were you supposed to defeat the Heartless here?" I nodded and crossed my arms, "Sorry, I came back here after my mission to help this fairy out. I didn't know you'd have to go here today."

"Let's fly back up to the ground. This is weirding me out... A lot," I told him, and started rising higher. He flew past me and landed on the ground lightly. I flew all the way to where he was and landed beside him.

A portal appeared behind us, and Axel came out of it.

"Oh, hi Axel! What are you doing here?" I waved at him.

"I thought I'd find out where Roxas ran off to. He didn't come to Twilight Town after his mission. Actually, you haven't been either, Xenia," Axel looked at me and Roxas, crossing his arms, "Roxas, we can't help the fairy. We don't have time to help the fairy right now. Let's RTC now."

"Okay," Roxas looked at the ground, disappointed. It seems he had his heart set on helping the fairy.

"Hey Xenia. Why haven't you been coming to Twilight Town? You're welcome there you know," Axel asked me.

"Uh, well... I didn't think of going there after missions every day. I mean, Xion just invited me that one day so I took it as a one time thing."

"Well start coming more often, it's fun when you're around!" Axel walked to his room, "I'm off to bed, see you guys later."

"Why were you trying to help a fairy Roxas?"

"She helped me fly so I can complete my mission, I just had to help her after that!"

"Right... Well, maybe you'll get to do it tommorow."

"I hope, she's pretty upset I didn't help her that time..."

"Well, I'm going to my room. See you later Roxas!"

"Oh, okay. See you later Xenia!" he replied.

* * *

><p>Okay, so how's this one? Comment, favorite, do whatever you like!<p>

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts but I do own Xenia!


	5. Chapter 4

"Jeez! It's so hot out here! Why did he send us here again?" I wiped the sweat off my forehead. Axel, who was apparently doing perfectly fine, chuckled.

"You seriously think it's hot out here? I'm not sweating a single drop!"

"Says the guy who uses fire all the time...," I muttered.

"It's not my problem you can't handle the heat! Anyway, we've got to go and figure out where the Heartless went," we continued walking through the deserted desert town.

"Where could they have gone anyway? There's not much shelter to hide in here...," I looked around, searching for any signs of Heartless.

"Possibly in a cave that's not far from here. There has been a lot of sandstorms of late, even Heartless can be affected by those."

"Then why are we searching _here_ instead of _there_?"

"Because we need to go through _here_ to get to _there_! Jeez, you ask a lot of questions," Axel sighed and walked towards a wall with a hole in it.

"Where does that lead?" I asked, peering into the gaping hole in the wall.

"To the cave, obviously. Why else would I look at it?" He walked through the hole. I started to follow, but hesitated, "What are you waiting for? Come on!"

"Right," I ran after him and nearly smashed into him when he suddenly stopped.

"Hey, what gives?" I backed away from him quickly.

"That's the cave, but I still don't see any Heartless around."

I ran into the cave and looked around, but no Heartless was in sight, as Axel said.

"What's going on here..?"

"See? Not a single one. Which is why we're here to figure out what happened to them all."

I ran further in the cave and looked in the pots and around the walls for them. Not a single one. So, I went in deeper.

"Axel, do you see anything?" I called out to him.

"We need to go deeper, this is too close to the entrance to say that they're not here."

I walked deeper into the cave and came across a long, rickety bridge. I quickly ran across it and looked behind me to see if Axel was there. When I didn't see him, I called out his name, "Axel! Where are you?"

"Jeez, you couldn't wait for me huh?" Axel, crossed the bridge slowly and was soon by my side.

"Sorry..."

"Hey, it's no problem. Just wait for me to catch up," he walked ahead into dark chamber ahead of us.

I followed him, and this time, I really did smash into him. I backed away and looked at what he was staring at.

"Oh... So... That's where they all are..." There were tons of Heartless everywhere. A bunch of them I've never even seen before. They were all surrounding what looked like a really small and weird black teapot.

"Shh!" He put his finger to his lips and got a little closer to them.

"Well, we found out where the heartless were! Let's go report to Saix and call it a day!" I turned around and started to walk away, but Axel grabbed my arm.

"Not yet. You know as well as I do that 'find the Heartless' means 'find the Heartless and kill them'."

I sighed and returned to his side. I heard a squeal above us and saw a red floating heartless above us, summoning a fireball. Immediately, every single Heartless in the room looked at us. I'm sure they were just as shocked as we were, because they stood there for a few seconds, trying to figure out why we were here, before moving.

"Great, they've found us!" Axel held his arms out and fire blazed around them. Two metal chakrams appeared in him hands, "Let's fight!"

I summoned my bow and arrow and jumped back so I could aim. I took an arrow and aimed for the Heartless that summoned magic, while Axel took care of the ones on the ground.

"There's too many!" I shouted, "It'll take all day to defeat these!"

"No, it's won't!" Axel summoned a fire ring around us and the Heartless.

"Hey! Are you trying to burn me to death?!" I leapt away from the flames and glared at him.

"Heh, sorry. Just avoid the wall if you don't want to get burned." He attacked the remaining Heartless that weren't engulfed in flames, while I tried to find a target.

"Um... Why are you standing there Xenia?"

"You got them all..."

"See? There weren't too many to handle!" His chakrams disappeared, as well as my weapons.

I looked at the object the Heartless were surrounding. Huh. It was a black... Teapot? Why would they be interested in that? I admit that it did look pretty sinister, but...

"That's a lamp. Not a teapot," he told me before I could ask him.

"I knew that already!" I quickly said, realizing such a thought was silly. I focused my attention on the black lamp again. Maybe I can make something happen with it, but what? I reached for it slowly.

"Don't touch it! If Heartless were interested in it, and it looks bad already, you shouldn't touch it," my hand froze, and retreated back to it's owner. Axel summoned a portal, "Anyway, let's RTC. We've got to tell Saix about this."

"Why are you back here? You should be finding the Heartless right now!" Saix was obviously not happy to see us back so soon.

"We DID find them," I snapped, and immediately regretted it as he glared at me.

"Oh really? And where were they Number XV?"

"Inside that cave next to the town. They were surrounding a black lamp."

"Good. You completing the mission. Now go!" he turned around and walked away angrily.

I turned around and headed to my room, when Axel stopped me.

"Where are you going? We're supposed to meet with Roxas and Xion in Twilight Town, remember?"

"Oh, right... Okay," I followed him back through the black portal to the familiar town.

Axel and I were standing in front of... An Ice Cream shop? There was a boy in front of it, grabbing three ice cream bars from a black haired lady with violet eyes.

"Why are we here instead of the tower?"

''We have to get the ice cream first, remember? Man, you forget quick," he walked over to the lady and held up four fingers, "Four sea salt ice cream bars please."

"Right away!" the woman said cheerfully. She walked to the back of the store and opened a box. I looked at the boy who had the three ice cream bars, he had a red shirt on and some baggy jeans. He looked at me his eyes widened. He opened his mouth, but then shook his head and walked away. The lady came back to the counter and handed Axel the 4 ice cream bars,"Here you go! Come again!"

She looked at me and frowned. She turned around and organized the boxes.

"Why are you just standing there Xenia? Let's go to the tower. Oh, here, hold these!" Axel shoved two of the ice cream bars in my hands and walked towards the tower.

"Hey guys!" I called out to Roxas and Xion sitting on the ledge.

"Oh, hi Xenia. I'm glad you made it!" Xion smiled warmly. I gave her an ice cream bar, and Axel gave Roxas his other one. We then both sat down next to each other, like last time.

I took a bite of my ice cream and thought about the strange looks that boy and lady gave me. Why did everything seem so familiar?

Okay guys, finished! I didn't really want to put a certain someone in charge of the Heartless again, so I changed it up a bit.  
>Comment, Favorite, do whatever you like!<p>

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts.


	6. Chapter 5

'OPERATIONS CLOSED FOR VACATION'

Those were the words on a metal sign on the window where Saix usually was. I read it over, rubbing my eyes to make sure I'm not dreaming.

"A day off? Since when?" I shook my head, "There's no way..."

I decided to walk downstairs instead of teleporting like usual. Then I ran into Axel and Roxas talking to each other. They saw me and I ran over to them.

"Axel, is today _really_ a day off? Or is it just a joke?" he nodded and I asked him another question, "What are you going to do today then?"

"Yeah, what _are_ you going to do Axel?" Roxas asked him. Axel folded his arms.

"Me? Sleep. And after that, I'll roll over and sleep some more."

"Wow, you really don't have any interesting plans?" I laughed, of course Axel would just sleep on our only day off.

"To me, sleep is the most interesting thing right now. Well, snooze-land is calling me. See you!" He walked to his room, leaving me and Roxas standing by the stairs.

"What do you usually do on a day off Xenia?" Roxas asked me.

"Um... Well, I was thinking I'd go to Twilight Town and explore a bit," I told him. I wanted to go to Twilight Town because it was so familiar. Maybe if I looked around the place, I'd find out why.

"Oh, okay."

"I'll see you later Roxas."

It was huge. The town, it had so many buildings, so many stores! I can't even find where I started looking! Right now, I was at an open space, with a few benches along the sides.

"Great job Hayner! Keep going!" I heard a boy's voice shout to my left. I looked for the owner of the voice and saw the same boy from yesterday. He was shouting at a blond haired boy who was knocking a blue cream colored ball into the air with some sort of blue sword.

"Hayner...," I said quietly. The name sounded so familiar.

_"Ah!" I flew backwards and landed roughly on the ground. The older teen in front of me smirked._

_"Give it up already kid, you can't beat me."_

_"No way Seifer!" I shouted. There was no way I was going to let him beat me. Just no way._

_"Leave her alone, will you?" a voice said behind me. I looked behind me to see a light skinned blond haired boy with brown eyes. He looked like he was my age._

_"What? She's the one who challenged me!" Seifer glared at the boy, "Besides, who are you to tell me what to do?"_

_"Hey!" a girl with brown hair and green eyes ran towards the boy, "Hayner, what are you doing?"_

_"I'm just defending someone," he folded his arms defiantly._

_"Come on, we need to stay out of trouble! You've already been in enough already...," she grabbed his hand and started to walk away with him. He pulled his hand away._

_"Wait a sec'," He looked at me, "You come too. There's no need to fight with this guy." I nodded and followed him out of the area._

_We arrived at a fenced area, "What are we doing here?"_

_"Go inside," he told me. I hesitated and walked in slowly. Inside was... A pretty cool place! I mean, it wasn't a top notch hideaway, but it was nice._

_"This is our hangout. We usually hang around here when we're bored," the brown haired girl told me. She then giggled, "I'm sorry, I didn't introduce myself! My name's Olette! Sorry about that back there, Hayner likes to help anyone going against Seifer."_

_"What were you doing anyway?" the blond haired boy asked._

_"They called me weak, so I wanted to show them that I wasn't," I explained._

_"Weak? For what?" Olette asked. I looked down._

_"Too weak to fight the monsters that appear in town. I want to protect my mom."_

_"That's pretty brave and all, but why challenge Seifer? Why not go and defeat a monster to prove it?" the boy suggested._

_"Hayner! Don't give her bad ideas!" Olette glared at the boy angrily._

_"I already tried that, but I couldn't find any..."_

_"Oh well, maybe another time!" Olette quickly said. The blond haired boy smiled._

_"I'm Hayner, by the way! Nice to meet you!" I smiled back._

_"Name's Anie, nice to meet you both."_

_A brown haired boy with brown eyes stumbled into the room, holding ice cream, "Hayner! Olette! I got the ice cream!" He handed a blue and white bar to Olette, who gladly took it. When he reached out to Hayner to give him one, he stopped and looked at me, "Who's this?"_

_"This is Anie, she was picking a fight with Seifer," Hayner told him and reached for the ice cream. Pence remember he still had the ice cream, and tried to give it to Hayner, but ended up dropping it, "Pence!"_

_"Whoops, sorry Hayner! I didn't mean it! Honest!" Pence held his hands up and backed away. Hayner chased after him, and they ran outside._

_"Those two," Olette sighed._

_"Hey, want to get some more ice cream?" I asked her._

_"Sure, but why?"_

_"My mom owns the ice cream shop, so it shouldn't be much trouble to get two more!" She nodded in agreement. When we walked outside, Hayner was still chasing Pence around. We laughed and walked to the ice cream store, Hayner and Pence eventually following us._

"Hey! You're that girl I saw yesterday!" the brown haired boy from yesterday ran over to me, "What are you doing here? I haven't seen you around here before..."

"Oh, sorry! I just wanted to check out this town, that's all," I explained, "My name's Xenia."

"Pence. Nice to meet you," he held out his hand and I shook it. Just then Roxas came over, "Hey! I know you! Did you find your friend?"

"Yeah," Roxas nodded. I looked at them, they knew each other?

"Pence! You know these two?" a girl with brown hair and an orange shirt ran over to us. He nodded.

"Yeah, I ran into them a while back."

"Well, nice to meet you guys! I'm Olette!"

"I'm Xenia, and this is Roxas," I told her. Pence grinned.

"And I'm Pence! But.. You already know that!"

"What are you guys doing?" Roxas looked at Hayner, who was on the ground with the ball still.

"Watching Hayner practice his Granstander act." Roxas still looked confused, so I explained it to him.

"It's a game where you keep hitting the ball in the air for as long as you can, without letting it touch the ground."

"Hayner's one of the best in town!" Pence told us, as Hayner was walking over.

"You new around here? How come you're bothering us?"

"Bothering, I was just- Sheesh, I was just passing by!" Roxas looked a bit upset.

"Uh-huh. Well, keep passing by then. We're busy here," Hayner looked away.

"Hey Hayner! Don't be rude, there's no need to be so mean!"

"Sorry about that, he's just-," Pence started, but Hayner cut him off.

"Hey, why don't you two try it? Let's see your juggling act!" He held out his blue sword to Roxas, "Here."

"Okay, sure," Roxas took the sword, "I'll try it."

He knocked the ball into the air, and after that... Well, let's say Roxas was very tired after that. He knocked it too far, every time, so to prevent it from hitting the ground, he'd run as fast as he could towards it and would hit it higher into the air.

"Wow, 36 points! You'd give Hayner a run for his money!" Pence grinned and laughed.

"Okay, now you try it," Hayner looked at me. I nodded and took the sword from Roxas.

I took a deep breath, and knocked the ball straight up. That was my strategy the whole time. Keep it close, but high in the air. I still had to run a little, but not as much as Roxas had to. Eventually, I hit the ball a little too hard and dove down to hit it, but missed.

"...52 points," Pence stared at me in awe.

"What?" Why were they looking at me like that?

"You beat the record. That's amazing!" Olette cheered.

"Hmph, I guess I'm cool with you guys...," Hayner muttered, "Sorry for railing on you before."

"Hayner was only acting grumpy because he couldn't beat the record," Pence explained.

"Hey! That's enough from you!" Hayner told him. Olette and Pence laughed, "You too!"

"Well, we'd better get going. See you guys later!" Roxas told them.

"Wait... Do you know...?" Hayner started to ask me but stopped, "No, there's no way you'd know her..."

"What?" I asked him.

"Nothing, just forget it."

"Oh, okay. Well, I hope we meet again sometime!" I followed Roxas to the tower where we usually eat ice cream and waited for Axel and Xion.

Did I live here before or something? When was that?

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, but I do own Xenia!


	7. Chapter 6

A huge, black gate stood in front of us. A gate that prevented us from completing our mission. Our mission was to investigate this castle. But right now, the only thing we could investigate was it's entrance.

"Well, that's too bad! Let's go back and tell Saix we couldn't do it!" Demyx turned right around and got ready to summon a portal. I grabbed his arm.

"Not so fast. I'm not about to get chewed out for being lazy," Demyx sighed and turned to face the gate again. Well, if we can't go through it, "We can climb it."

"What?"

"We can climb over the gate," I repeated, and proceeded to place my foot at it's base.

"Um... Are you sure? It could trigger a trap, or monsters can attack us."

"Then I guess we'll have to deal with them," I continued to climb, lifting my foot higher to reach the second bar.

"Aw, all right," he walked through a portal and appeared on the other side. I stared at him, "What?"

"You could have done that the whole time?!"

"Well, of course," he thought for a moment and frowned, "Oh..."

I went through his portal and walked past him angrily. What a serious waste of time.

"Now... How do we get in here?" I examined the tall door towering above us. I knocked on it, and it slowly creaked open, "Guess it wasn't locked.."

I walked inside to find... A walking clock? It paced back and forth, looking around every once and a while. I opened my mouth to ask it a question, seeing it could probably talk, and Demyx stopped me.

"What are you doing?" he hissed, "Are you trying to get us killed?"

"What do you mean? It's just a clock, what can it do?" As if a clock was going to hurt us.

"We don't communicate with people that look suspicious." I nodded, I guess a walking clock was a little suspicious. Even if it couldn't hurt us.

"Well, how do we get past him then?" He was pacing all over the room. There was no way we could get past without him seeing us.

"If it's impossible, then there are two options: 1. Go home and tell Saix that it just looks dangerous and we couldn't finish, or, 2. Find another way in."

I nodded and carefully walked back outside. Maybe we can get through one of the windows. I looked for a window I could reach, none of them seemed close enough to get through.

"Hey, I found an entrance!" Demyx called from a corner of the castle, "It's kinda small though..."

"Who cares? Let's go through!" I crawled through the little hole he showed me and appeared in a small hallway. After walking through it, we arrived at another door. I slowly pushed it open and saw the same room we were in before, with the clock still pacing around. I quickly ran across the staircase to the other side and found myself in yet another hallway.

"Hey... Isn't it strange that no Heartless have appeared yet?" just as he mentioned it, some Soldiers appeared.

"Of course," I summoned my bow and arrows and jumped back, aiming at the Heartless. Demyx summoned... A guitar? I stared as he hit the Soldiers with it, causing them to disappear one by one. Soon they were all gone and our weapons disappeared.

"You could've told me if you didn't want to fight."

"Huh? No! I just... Um, your weapon."

"Oh, that? What's wrong with it?"

"Nothing...," I continued down the hallway to find another door.

"Gee, how many doors are there here?"

After a while, we arrived at a room that looked like a dungeon. I shivered, "It's really cold here..."

Then we heard a low growling noise. It sounded like it came from the end of the dungeon.

"W-what was that?" Demyx stammered. I shrugged and walked towards the noise. Demyx ran to stop me, "What are you doing?!"

"Finding out what the noise is," I continued walking towards it and stopped. There was a huge... thing standing in front of me.

"Who are you? WHY ARE YOU IN MY CASTLE?!" it roared. I jumped away quickly, investigating was a bad idea.

"Um.. We're just passing through! Ehehehe, no need to mind us," I said quickly, hoping it would leave us alone.

"GET OUT!" it roared. I looked behind me and saw Demyx taking off. I've never seen anyone run that fast.

"Run away!" he shouted over his shoulder. I followed, sprinting away from the monster. I heard loud thumps, and when I looked behind me, I saw it following us. Now that it was in the light, I could see it had shaggy brown fur and menacing eyes.

I sped up, running past Demyx and towards the entrance of the castle. Unfortunately, I forgot the clock was there still.

"Uh oh!" I skidded to a halt right in front of it. Demyx crashed into me and I nearly fell on the clock. The monster stopped running and stomped towards us.

I scrambled to my feet and ran towards the door.

"Ahh! Intruders! What are they doing here?" the clock shouted. So it could talk... I swung open the door and sped out, and quickly summoned a portal.

"WAIT FOR ME!" I turned around and saw Demyx running as fast as he could, the beast right behind him. He crashed into me and we both fell through the portal.

"Um..." We had successfully gotten through the portal, thank goodness. But now there was another problem. A big one. The portal had led us right to Saix. Right in front of him, in fact. We fell out of the portal onto the ground at his feet. And now he was glaring us to death.

"What are you doing back here so early?" Demyx and I quickly stood up.

"Well, you see, we ran into a.. Problem," Saix kept glaring at us, so he continued, "A monster kind of chased us and we had to escape so..."

"But we investigated the castle!" I quickly said. He then glared at me, and I backed away slowly.

"I should have known pairing you up with Demyx wasn't a good idea," he sighed and turned around, "Go, you're done for the day."

"Phew! That was close," Demyx grinned. That was short-lived as Saix had more to say to him.

"Demyx, I will see to you later," Saix walked away.

"It's not that bad Demyx? What's the worst that can happen?"

"He goes Beserk and tries to kill me," Demyx replied.

"I'm sure it won't be that bad," now that I think about it, that's probably what's going to happen. Poor Demyx. I headed for my room, and stopped, "Right! I can meet with them at the tower now!"

I arrived at the tower and saw Axel, Roxas, and Xion waiting.

"You came!" Roxas smiled.

"Yeah," I sat down next to Axel and gazed at the town below us.

"Here," Axel held out a sea-salt ice cream bar. I took it and bit it.

"Thanks!"

"You're awfully quiet, what's up?"

"I had to go investigate this castle with Demyx today. We kind of ran from this beast and returned to the base in the middle of the mission," I looked at my ice cream, "Needless to say, Saix wasn't pleased."

"Don't worry! It's okay, as long as you did your best!" Xion told me. I smiled faintly.

"Don't worry about that grump, he won't do anything if he knows that you were with Demyx."

"He always slacks off! When I had to complete a mission with him, I had to defeat most of the Heartless!" Roxas said.

"Right... Thanks guys!" I continued to eat my ice cream, the others doing the same.

Still, what was going to happen to Demyx?

"Eep! I'm sorry! I won't slack off again! Promise!" Demyx shouted as he dodged another blow.

"You.. Lazy.. Weak... Useless..!" Saix roared, swinging his claymore at Demyx once more. His hair was ruffled, and his amber eyes were glowing dangerously.

"AHHH!" Demyx fell over, and scrambled away, running once more.

_  
>Okay! Finally updated my story! So, I don't remember the layout of Beast's Castle EXACTLY since it's been a while, but I did my best.<br>I'm might be a while when updating again because of the schoolwork I have, but that's the only reason. I should be able to update on the weekends again, if I'm able to access the computer.  
>Oh, and Demyx is okay, just so you guys know.<p>

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, but I do own Xenia!


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